CUTTACK: Five years have passed since the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had come up with a proposal to construct a modern working women’s hostel in the city.
However, the project, aimed at mitigating problems faced by working women in finding suitable accommodation in the city, is yet to see the light of day.
The CMC had cancelled its plan chalked out in 2015 to transform the top floor of Satichaura night shelter building into a working women’s hostel. Instead, it had initiated steps for constructing a full-fledged modern working women’s hostel in the city at a cost of Rs 2 crore in 2016.
As per the revised plan, the CMC had planned to dismantle Bhagat Hostel, a private hostel at Kesharpur-Bepari Sahi which was handed over to the civic body in 1962.
Bhagat Hostel which had been providing accommodation to students of different colleges in the city was declared unsafe following which it was shut down.
The then Commissioner and chairmen of different standing committees had inspected the site following which it was decided to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for construction of a modern working women’s hostel.
Sources said, due to inaction of the civic body’s engineering section, the project remains in the proposal stage. If the facility comes up, it would prove to be a boon to working women in the city, who come from different districts but find it difficult to avail safe and affordable accommodation.
“Cuttack holds equal importance as State capital Bhubaneswar. But there is no major facility in the city for working women. Working women and girls have been facing a lot of difficulty in finding rented accommodation in the city as many house owners hesitate to give them rooms on rent. There is an urgent need to set up more hostels for working women at the earliest,” said Shibani Praharaj of Angul who works with a city-based private company.
CMC Commissioner Ananya Das however said there is no active file pending in connection with construction of working women’s hostel.
“I shall have to go through the files to comment on the issue,” she said.